


Half-life

by costumejail



Series: Paradise Motel Week [5]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album), The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)
Genre: (They dont know it yet but they will be), (phoenix witch stuff), First Meetings, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Parent(s), Minor Character Death, Minor Injuries, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Show Pony (Danger Days), One Shot, Religion, heavy on the hurt and kind of awkward comfort but its there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:55:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26566918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/costumejail/pseuds/costumejail
Summary: Dr. Death-Defying finds something at the wreckage of a Zone Five home.
Relationships: Dr. Death Defying & Show Pony (Danger Days)
Series: Paradise Motel Week [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1924936
Comments: 17
Kudos: 17





	Half-life

**Author's Note:**

> Day six of [@killjoynest](killjoynest.tumblr.com)'s Paradise Motel Week!  
> Warnings:  
> \- Unnamed character death (just prior to the fic)  
> \- Parental loss  
> \- A minor injury mention (injured character is a child)

D smelled the fire before he saw it. An acrid, suffocating stench that coated his nostrils and throat. He could practically feel his lungs blackening by the time the smoke was visible.

By the time he saw the flames, he had his bandana tied tightly around his nose and mouth, wetted down to try and filter out the smoke that filled the air. The blaze was huge, easily large enough to engulf the entire RadioShack.

The Witch hadn’t said much about why she was sending him to this barren patch of Zone Five, just that there was something he needed to see and something he needed to bring back. He’s still getting used to her vague orders and direct requests but understood enough to know he had to hightail it as soon as she’d vanished in a burst of feathers. Well, he’s seen the fire. There’s nothing else to see. D figures it must be an old house, gone too dry in the sun and just waiting for a wrong spark to send the thing into a blaze of heat and smoke and blinding light.

Silhouetted against the blaze, far closer than D would have dared get to it, is a shape. A person.

“Hey!”

They turn. D can’t make out much with the distortion coming off of the flames, but they’re short, almost childlike in their proportions. D jogs forward, cursing the way his knee brace clicks and strains.

“Hey, kid.” It’s just a kid, they look barely ten. “You gotta get out of here, motorbaby.”

They look up at him, soot smeared across their forehead and mingling with the sweat that’s popped up from being so close to the flames. Greasy dark hair is pulled back messily, a twist at their temple the only indication that some effort was put into the style.

“They’re dead,” mumbles the kid.

Their eyes are glassy, they sway slightly as they stand. Clutched in their hands are three masks and D sucks in a breath.

“C’mon, tumbleweed, I’ve got water in my van. I’ll take you to a mailbox.”

The kid shakes their head urgently, angrily. “Ma told me to stay here, she said to keep their masks safe, she told—” They gasp, then cough.

They keep coughing, body trembling as they hack up smoke. D mumbles an apology as he hoists them over his shoulder and carries them away from the fire. Thank the Witch they aren’t that big, he has no trouble carrying them even as his knee protests and they convulse with each rough cough that rips from their lungs.

A few hundred metres from the fire, D stops, he puts the kid down and does an abbreviated checkup. They’re not concussed, not even hurt beyond a faint burn on one leg.

“The Witch must’ve been watching over you,” D tells them when he finishes.

“Ma,” they shake their head. “Ma told me to get out.”

“One’a those hers?” D gestures at the masks in the kid’s hands.

They hold out a green mask decorated with white circles.

“There’s a mailbox near my station. You can say your goodbyes there.”

Numbly, the kid nods. They stumble after D until they reach his van, then climb into the passenger’s seat and curl up, holding the masks close to their chest. D passes them a water bottle and they take a few shallow sips.

“I’m D,” the DJ says once he’s got the vehicle in motion. “Dr. Death-Defying.”

“Show Pony,” mumbles the kid. “Ae/aer.”

“He/him for me. I’d say nice to meet you but I feel like you’d rather we hadn’t, given the circumstances.”

Show Pony doesn’t reply, ae stares dully through the windshield, eyes fixed on the mailbox that eventually appears in the late-afternoon haze.

When D stops the van, ae climbs out, stumbles towards the mailbox, and drops the masks through the slot. D hears them thud to the bottom of the altar and watches Pony press aer forehead to the side of the box, lips moving in an unheard prayer.

Ae stays like that until the sun has set, then ae straightens up, wipes aer cheeks, and returns to the van.

“You got anyone you want me to call? Any other crew members?”

“No,” Pony replies. Aer voice shakes a bit. D chooses not to mention it.

“I’ve got a spare room or two, sound shiny?”

“Shiny.”

D starts the van again. It’s a short drive to the RadioShack and they complete the drive in silence.

Pony stays silent all through the brief tour of the Shack, the meagre dinner D whips up, and his evening broadcast. Ae also doesn’t leave his side except to go to the bathroom and get changed into clothes that don’t smell like the ashes of aer old home. It’s only as D goes to roll his chair out of aer bedroom for the night that ae pipes up.

“D?”

“What’s up, kid?”

“Thanks.”

D inhales sharply, “Don’t sweat it, Pony. Half’a life’s about helping others.”

“What’s the other half?”

“Lettin’ them help you.”

Pony nods.

“Goodnight, kid. I’m right down the hall if you need anything.”

“‘Night.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I know this one wasn't super happy but I haven't done a whole lot of Show Pony backstory and ae're SO important to me. Feel free to leave a comment or come chat with me on [tumblr!](sleevesareforlosers.tumblr.com)


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